Walker CJ61
Dear Friend,
I'm pleased to hear that a Walker CJ61 has turned up in Chile. I have run one for many years (bought directly from the maker, Colin Walker, one of the nicest people in hi fi). It is a fine turntable and there are several tweaks I can recommend.
1. If you can get a good quality external power supply designed for turntables, it will bene fit. (I use a Hi Fi News 'Flutterbuster'.) These power supplies have quartz-locked frequency and reduce the power fed to the motor.)
2. The best free upgrade is to remove the foam cores from the suspension springs, which cleans up and extends the bass. If the turntable is a bit bouncy to handle, place a small piece of rubber on top of the armboard where it exits the main 'drum' enclosure, trimmed to that there is a small clearance between them. This will not interfere when it is playing but will come into contact and steady the turntable when you are cuing a record.
3. It is worth checking the speed of the turntable with a strobe. Many of the CJ61s produced had pulleys which were correctly sized for 45rpm but were at the bottom of the specified tolerance range for 33rpm, so they ran slightly slow. You may be lucky and have a good one but the one I got ran a little slow, which (to my ear) was noticeable. The 'cheap and cheerful' remedy (recommended by Colin Walker) is to remove the belt, set the motor running and then carefully apply a coat or two of nail varnish to it. However I found that this tends to get a bit rough after prolonged use, so eventually I took my pulley (it is a press fit on the motor spindle) to a metal machinist and got him to make a copy with a slightly larger diameter. He made it slightly oversized and then I reduced it to 'perfect pitch' using very fine emery paper (with the belt removed and the motor running). It was quite expensive but it was worth it.
With these upgrades, I believe the CJ61 is an excellent and under-rated turntable.
Dear Friend,
I'm pleased to hear that a Walker CJ61 has turned up in Chile. I have run one for many years (bought directly from the maker, Colin Walker, one of the nicest people in hi fi). It is a fine turntable and there are several tweaks I can recommend.
1. If you can get a good quality external power supply designed for turntables, it will bene fit. (I use a Hi Fi News 'Flutterbuster'.) These power supplies have quartz-locked frequency and reduce the power fed to the motor.)
2. The best free upgrade is to remove the foam cores from the suspension springs, which cleans up and extends the bass. If the turntable is a bit bouncy to handle, place a small piece of rubber on top of the armboard where it exits the main 'drum' enclosure, trimmed to that there is a small clearance between them. This will not interfere when it is playing but will come into contact and steady the turntable when you are cuing a record.
3. It is worth checking the speed of the turntable with a strobe. Many of the CJ61s produced had pulleys which were correctly sized for 45rpm but were at the bottom of the specified tolerance range for 33rpm, so they ran slightly slow. You may be lucky and have a good one but the one I got ran a little slow, which (to my ear) was noticeable. The 'cheap and cheerful' remedy (recommended by Colin Walker) is to remove the belt, set the motor running and then carefully apply a coat or two of nail varnish to it. However I found that this tends to get a bit rough after prolonged use, so eventually I took my pulley (it is a press fit on the motor spindle) to a metal machinist and got him to make a copy with a slightly larger diameter. He made it slightly oversized and then I reduced it to 'perfect pitch' using very fine emery paper (with the belt removed and the motor running). It was quite expensive but it was worth it.
With these upgrades, I believe the CJ61 is an excellent and under-rated turntable.
Walker CJ61
Dear friend,
I have only tried three tonearms on the CJ61: a Rega RB250, a Mayware Formula 4 MkIII and a Mayware MkV. All of them worked well (the Mayware MkV is the one I use now). Because the arm support is outboard on the CJ61, it is probably best to use an arm which is not too heavy.
Yours sincerely,
Alasdair Beal
Dear friend,
I have only tried three tonearms on the CJ61: a Rega RB250, a Mayware Formula 4 MkIII and a Mayware MkV. All of them worked well (the Mayware MkV is the one I use now). Because the arm support is outboard on the CJ61, it is probably best to use an arm which is not too heavy.
Yours sincerely,
Alasdair Beal
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